Review as of 09th of October 2025 TLDR: Great concept, needs a bit more work to turn into a fully-fledged game. If you want a chill, slightly repetitive but satisfying game, buy this one. If you are looking for something that will grab you for hours on end, pass this one for the moment, but be sure to keep an eye on it from time to time. Overall Score: 8/10 Graphics: 10/10 Sound: 9/10 Story: 6.5/10 Coop-mode: 8.5/10 Game Design: 5/10 Game Mechanics: 7/10 Performance: 10/10 Overall Dragon Song Tavern is a lovely game. The graphics are pretty, neat and using 2D assets to make a fully fleshed out 3D environment bringing a nice, refreshing vibe to the game, as if you are playing out out of the fairy-tale book. However, this comes with a hiccup: balance and progression. So far, I feel like "small" one to two hours sessions are how I can enjoy the game. Start it, play 2 to 3 in-game days then take a break. And it's a shame because there is a lot of potential ! Graphics This is maybe one of the best highlights for this game. Character customisation is simple but it has depth and is very satisfying. Plenty of dresses and clothes for both genders to play with, custom, and as they are purchased progressively, there is enough to get a few changes in wardrobe through the game progression. The different maps - the homestead, Town Market and the various areas are well worked and quite pretty to explore. And despite the trees and decors being flat, they still feel satisfying to explore and pass by, showing a good attention to detail here. Sound Very nice work here too. The various melodies and ambience sound are simple but satisfying and match well the atmosphere of the game. The only demerit I could feel is that it would be nice to have just a bit more variety and potentially being able to chose the music in the Tavern itself. Otherwise, nothing to say other than: Bravo. Story Ok, so here is our first problem. Story and in particular, story progression. You start the game and are thrown straight into tutorial mode paired with the story. But it feels a bit disconnected. It feels more like the story is written to match the mechanics than the opposite. Instead of throwing everything in one go at the player, progress through it one day at a time. Having the magic bread and water on the first evening would show the Player that they need to prepare meals. So the next day, they can work on meals with crops planted the first day. On the second day, they get to serve 2 dishes they made themselves from day 1 crops processed with Luca's help. Then evening of day 2, customers can suggest pairing drinks. And so day 3, player can make a Lemonade or other, leading to a less daunting progression and a nicer ease into the story of being tavern keepers. It would also help character building as it gives more time and dialogue to work this new relationship between players and Lucas. The story is pretty linear. The fact that it is also tied to quest and level progression hinders it a fair bit. Again, story shouldn't be directly blocked by game mechanics. It would be good to work on the adventuring side and give it a proper quest, separate from the main story. Giving the player another reason to explore and visit maps other than "I need x ingredient" would feel a lot more satisfying in my opinion. Now, please do take this with a pinch of salt, I have not cleared the full game, far from it seeing I only have gotten to the 2nd adventure zone. Coop-mode Not much to say in this particular section. Did not experience any particular technical issue. It would however be nice to have access to Story progression. Events / cut-scenes can be forced on both player the moment one triggers it or both could be needed to allow the story to proceed. Other than that, well done. Game Design Here we are. The crux of the pain in this game. First of all, let's give to Cesar what belongs to Cesar: 1 - The game is neat and overall organised 2 - It works. Well enough to have spent a couple of sessions and it being fun 3 - It makes sense and has good structure, be it in terms of mechanics or progression 4 - Adventuring gear and costumes look good However... A - It lacks balance. Certain ingredients can only be obtained once a month, others only every few days and this is not very well explained at all. And this can get especially frustrating at the start if you are trying to play without following a wiki or a guide, since NPCs only give you hint through rumours and by the time you hear the rumour about the ingredient you are trying to get it might be too late... Finding about an ingredient spawn date right after the day it spawned on, forcing you to wait a whole month....I'm looking at you cave spiders.... In a similar fashion, gear materials are quest rewards only... Quest which are sporadic at best... B - It lacks progression. Nearly every single ingredient is available from game start. Not only is this overwhelming to a starting player, but it very quickly kills the progression. Other than the story, there is no real reason to strive to continue the game. C - As a result of A and B, the game is grindy. And not in a fun way. You want fish? You have to wait for it to spawn. You want special ingredients? Sorry, gotta wait for it to be the right day. You want to process a resource? Sorry, you can only do it 2 at a time. Each of these, on their own, are fine, but accumulate them and the fun starts to slip away. D - This one is a bit minor, but still good to note. You enter a shop from the front, but inside the shops are displayed from the opposite side, making the player appear at what looks like "the back". And if you haven't stopped moving forward? Well, your exiting right back out. This is fine a few times but when you are running around trying to get your gear sorted? Gets....frustrating. So if we enter by the front, make the player appear at the bottom of the screen, not the top please. Or freeze the exit for 2 or 3 seconds to let our minds adjust. E - Adventuring. It's great, DnD inspired, and simplified enough to be accessible. But it's barely explained, you aren't even told your starting class and there are no explanations around combat. I could make this a whole section in and of itself... But let's keep it simple: needs more work. a) Explain gear evolution. Also, make it as a tree, that would be much nicer. b) Add more gear to the merchant - basic gear just has no use/appeal. Offer improvements when moving regions but keep them less interesting than the custom gear. You should aim for a balance where: Basic Rank 1 < Custom Rank 1 < basic Rank 2 < Custom Rank 2 - this way there is a motivation for players to purchase basic gear and that way their custom gear is unequipped and ready for upgrade once they have the materials to upgrade it c) Make hunting a way to get upgrade materials, this would help making the game less grindy and more entertaining. Pair that with the removal of the zone visit limit. Player is already limited in the amount of hours in a day, no need to lock them out in a single zone per day (even with Lucas magic - or provide "upgrades" to do it more often) So again, huge potential but there is work to do. Game Mechanics This one is interesting. Most mechanics are very well designed and satisfying but due to balancing, they don't deliver their full might. 1 - Cooking. Make it progressive. Consider ingredient prep and a way to latter expedite it (helpers or skip). Maybe add facilities in the tavern that can be bought and upgraded to do more 2 - Story. Consider adding class actions/dialogues to immerse the player more 3 - Refining. Seems on the way, but to confirm: need ways to upgrade facilities 4 - Growing. Add an Orchard 5 - Make fish spawn at day start and replenish after fished